One background worker (src/vegas_mode/live_worker.py) redraws a plugin's
live elements when its data epoch moves on (update listener) or on their
refresh_hz, nearest the screen first, and hands changed pixels lock-free to
the render thread, which copies them into the strip between frames
(RenderPipeline.apply_live_patches, ScrollHelper.patch_columns): at most
four patches or two screens of bytes a frame, no drawing or locks there.
The worker takes over group prefetch once a live element is placed, runs
inside the render gate, and is supervised. Update tick 1s while live
elements exist. Web UI switch for live_refresh. OFFSCREEN_RENDERING.md
describes what was built and why SegmentStrip was not needed.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
DisplayManager.offscreen() gives a thread its own canvas, so Vegas renders every plugin's ticker content on its prefetch thread instead of pausing the scroll for canvas-bound plugins on the render thread. A render gate (src/common/render_gate.py, vegas_scroll.prefetch_gate, on by default with the GIL-releasing binding) lets the prefetch thread run Python only while the render thread waits in SwapOnVSync: on hdpi, frames 2+ refreshes late fell eightfold and late frames overall from 0.90% to 0.60%. See docs/OFFSCREEN_RENDERING.md.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
